The Multiple Mysteries of Herschel Walker and Sybil

In his new book "Breaking Free," former Dallas Cowboys star Herschel
Walker claims that for much of his life, "he" was really "we." That's
because he has Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD, or Dissociative
Identity Disorder, as it was renamed in 1994 by the American
Psychiatric Association).

The diagnosis is controversial, and some psychologists doubt it even
exists. Many therapists don't see a single MPD case during their entire
careers, while others find dozens of cases in their patient pool.

Those with the disease are said to have at least one (in some cases
dozens or hundreds) of different other personalities, called "alters,"
that can control the person's behavior and thoughts. Often the person
will create different, specialized alters to deal with difficult
situations.

The Enforcer

Walker, for example, says he gave his alters names such as General,
Daredevil, Enforcer, and Warrior, and that they "functioned as a kind
of community supporting me.”

For such a rare disease,
MPD is widely known. Its popularity is largely due to a best-selling
1973 book by Flora Schreiber which told the story of a young woman
named Sybil who claimed to have sixteen different personalities inside
her. That book was later turned into a film, and gave the idea of
multiples and alters a high profile. Diagnoses soon skyrocketed, and
for decades Sybil remained the symbol and definitive example of
Multiple Personality Disorder.

In 1999, long-lost audio tapes provided a fascinating twist to
Sybil's case, suggesting that in fact Sybil may not have had multiple
personalities after all.

Oops!

According to psychologist Dr. Robert Reiber of John Jay College in
New York, the tapes indicate that the various personalities Sybil
believed she had were unintentionally created during therapy by her
psychiatrist, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. The tapes, which had been placed in
Reiber's desk in 1972 and forgotten, also show "Sybil" author Schreiber
improperly ignoring a letter from Sybil to Wilbur in which she denied
having multiple personalities. (Perhaps Schreiber realized that having
Sybil say that the book wasn't true would hurt sales.)

Dr. Reiber is supported by Dr. Herbert Spiegel, a New York
psychiatrist who treated Sybil when Wilbur was unavailable. Spiegel
also believes that Sybil's personalities were iatrogenic, that is they
arose from Wilbur's method of therapy.

Wilbur's treatment included giving names to each of Sybil's
emotional states, much as Herschel Walker did. (This would be like
saying that when you are feeling upset, you become "Mr. Cranky," and
when you are feeling seductive you become "Brad Pitt.")

The original MPD diagnosis arose when Wilbur began to believe that
the different names for Sybil's emotional states represented actual,
distinct personalities within Sybil.

If the most famous victim of MPD probably did not have the disease
she was internationally known for, where does that leave Walker and the
tens of thousands of others who believe they have the disease? Whether
MPD sufferers really have multiple personalities inside them — or their
personalities are a product of therapy — the underlying mental illness
is real, and sufferers deserve respect and treatment.